Barcelona 6 Eibar 1

At the Camp Nou, on Tuesday evening, Barcelona continued their fine start to the 2017 / 2018 La Liga season when they beat Eibar handsomely.

With Ernesto Valverde choosing to shuffle his starting eleven, with the games coming thick and fast this month, it was, once again, Lionel Messi who was the star of the show.

The Argentine striker scored four of the six goals making it a total of 12 goals in 8 competitive games, in all competitions this season, a fine achievement.

Barcelona took the lead in the 20th minute, with Messi scoring from the spot, in the 38th minute Paulinho scored the second, his second in successive games, making it 2-0.

Leading 2-0 at half-time, Denis Suarez made it 3-0 when he seized on a rebound to lash the ball home in the 53rd minute before our visitors reduced the arrears in the 57th minute when Enrich scored at the near post.

But, with the score at 3-1, it was to become the Lionel Messi show. The Argentine netted his second of the game just before the hour mark to make it 4- 1bfore making it 5-1 in the 62nd minute. His fourth goal of the night and Barcelona`s sixth, came in the 87th minute/

The four goals mean that Messi has scored nine goals in his last four La Liga games and the striker has now moved to a total of 301 goals at the Camp Nou in the 13 years he has been with the club.

The result sees Barcelona open up a five-point gap at the top of the table.